How to Fix Bad iOS 9 Battery Life

Apple’s iOS 9 update continues to cause battery life problems for many iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. With those problems in mind, we show you how to fix bad iOS 9 battery life on iOS 9.0, iOS 9.1, iOS 9.2, iOS 9.3, iOS 9.3.2, iOS 9.3.3, iOS 9.3.4, the iOS 9.3.5 update, and Pokemon Go.

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While Apple’s iOS 9 updates have delivered a ton of new features and fixes to iPhone and iPad users, they’ve also brought some problems.

iOS 9 battery life problems continue to frustrate many iPhone and iPad users including those who recently downloaded the iOS 9.3.5 update. This isn’t surprising.

Abnormal battery drain is a common iOS problem and it always seems to show up, en masse, right after an iOS release.

iOS updates aren’t supposed to have a negative effect on overall battery life on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. And with Apple touting an iOS 9 battery life boost, we’re not surprised to see people expressing their frustration.

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My iPhone has been draining battery so bad, 9.3.3 update doesn't seem to have helped at all. Shuts down at 80%,lives on the charger. 😭😭 #ios

You should keep some of these tips and fixes stored in your memory bank. Battery life problems can strike your device at any time so you’ll always want to be prepared.

Look Into Your Apps

If you’re noticing strange battery drain on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, the first thing you’ll want to do is take a long hard look at your applications, especially if you’re playing Pokemon Go.

It’s easy to blame Apple for your problems but there’s a good chance that it’s a third-party application hogging your resources.

To start digging into your app performance, you’ll want to go into Settings > Battery and get familiar with the Battery Usage tool and the changes that Apple’s made in iOS 9.

The tool will show you which apps are eating up the most battery but it will now show you when they’re eating up the most battery.

It will also show you what apps have been using the most power over a 24 hour span and what’s been eating your phone or tablets battery life over a longer span of time.

If you tap on the little clock there, you’ll also be able to pull up a breakdown that shows you exactly when they’re eating up the most battery.

Some apps will drain battery the most when the screen is on and some might zap your power when the screen is off.

If you see something odd, you’ll want to first try updating the application (assuming it has good reviews). Developers have been rolling out iOS 9 support updates in recent days and there’s a good chance your apps have updates.

If that doesn’t help, try reinstalling it or uninstalling it completely to see if your overall iPhone or iPad battery life improves some.

Uninstall Facebook

Facebook’s app is under fire again for causing battery life troubles on the iPhone. A recent piece from The Guardian suggests that the app is still chewing up a substantial amount of battery life. The author claims that, on average, he has 15% more battery life each day without Facebook installed.

If you have the Facebook app on your phone, it might be worth an uninstall (permanent or temporary is up to you) to see if it has a positive effect on your iPhone’s charge.

Pokemon Go

If you’re playing Pokemon Go on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch for long periods of time, there’s a good chance it’s draining your battery.

Pokemon Go relies on GPS to track your movement. GPS kills battery life. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to combat Pokemon Go battery drain on iOS 9:

Lower your screen brightness.

Use an external battery pack.

Kill Bluetooth and Wi-Fi while you’re roaming around playing the game.

Turn On Airplane Mode

If you’re noticing battery drain, it might be because you’re in an area with spotty cellular service. If you are, your device will work extra hard to try and find a signal and that could cause your battery life to start draining rapidly.

To combat this, flip your device into Low Power Mode or Airplane Mode. Airplane Mode can be found at the top of Settings and it will kill all of your connections. If you’ve flown any time in the past five years, you’ve probably used it.

With Airplane Mode turned on, your phone won’t be searching for a better signal or any nearby connections. Just make sure to flip it off when you’re back in an area with better service.

Disable iCloud Keychain

This is a potential fix that’s been passed down over the years and there’s a chance it might work for you after installing iOS 9.

Try disabling iCloud Keychain if you don’t use it. iPhone and iPad users have reported a bump to battery life after turning it off and there’s a chance you could see some improvements.

To disable iCloud Keychain on your device, you’ll need to go into Settings > iCloud > Keychain > Toggle iCloud Keychain off. You can always flip the feature back on if you determine that there’s no connection between it and the battery drain on your device.

Limit Background App Refresh

If you don’t need your apps to automatically refresh in the background, you might want to try disabling the Background App Refresh feature that comes standard with iOS.

Background app refresh is handy is you want your applications to show the latest data whenever you open them but in our experience its proven to be a resource hog. If you have it on, apps will work in the background and that can be a catalyst for bad battery life.

Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Turn it off for each app that is using too much power. It’s a tedious process but it could help.

You can also turn the feature off completely if you don’t want to go through your list of applications one by one.

Manage Your Display

Get a handle on your display.

Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod touch use an array of sensors and one of those sensors adjusts the screen automatically in certain lighting environments. Sometimes the sensor works to perfection. Sometimes it doesn’t.

iOS 9’s Control Center offers quick access to an auto brightness toggle. To pull it up, swipe up from the bottom of your screen.

Restart Your iPhone or iPad

You should also try restarting your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

If you don’t know how to do this, hold down the power button for a few seconds and swipe to shut the device down. Hold down the power button again to boot the device back up.

If that doesn’t help, you can also try a hard reset. To do that, hold down the home button and the power button for about 10 seconds. The device will restart it self. As a reminder, this will not remove any of your data.

Reset All Settings

The above fixes include changes to your habits and some smaller tweaks. The fixes listed below are more drastic measures.

The first step to take is a reset on all of your device’s settings. To do this, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings and then enter your passcode when the prompt appears.

The reset process could take five minutes or so and once it’s done, it will restore your settings to their factory defaults. Make sure you have Wi-Fi passwords handy because your phone or tablet will forget them. And as a reminder, this will not delete any of your files.

Downgrade to an Older Version

For a limited time after an update’s release you can downgrade to the older version. Currently, you can downgrade from iOS 9.3.5 to iOS 9.3.4 though we expect the iOS 9.3.4 downgrade to close up within a few weeks.

Restore the iOS 9 Update

If none of this works, you can try a restore on your iPhone or iPad. This should only be used as a last resort because it erases everything on your device and could take awhile to complete depending on how many files you have on your device.

You can try restoring from your backup after the iOS 9 update. If your iOS 9 battery life issues return after the restore, you will want to try this method again without restoring from the backup. Here’s how to do this on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch:

If you’re struggling with iOS 9 battery life, try reaching out to Apple’s Twitter support line for assistance. It’s possible that they will have a fix or two that fall outside of this list.

4 Reasons Not to Install iOS 10.1.1 & 6 Reasons You Should

Install iOS 10.1.1 If You Want Better Security

1 / 10

If you failed to make the move to iOS 10.1 before the iOS 10.1.1 release and you value your security, you'll want to seriously consider the iOS 10.1.1 update.

If you failed to download iOS 10.1 know that iOS 10.1.1 brings iOS 10.1's 12 security patches along with it. These patches enhance the security on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch making them ideal for those of you who store sensitive files/data on your device. Most people do.

Apple's iOS 10.1.1 update comes with those patches and it also brings the patches from Apple's previous versions of iOS 10. If you haven't downloaded iOS 10 yet, you'll get all of those baked in. This is important, particularly for those of you on something older than iOS 9.3.5.

72 Responses

0=0011my buddy’s sister-in-law makes $63 an hour on the laptop . She has been fired from work for 8 months but last month her pay check was $21022 just working on the laptop for a few hours…. Find Out More

A quick way to fix this batter drainage problem is to go to settings > general> restart> reset all settings
Witch will resolve the battery issue fixing your usage to the correct function
So with your phone on standby(unused) it won’t die over time
Instead it will keep its battery life
For a longer duration

I updated my iPhone 6 from iOS 9.0 to 9.01, before going to bed my phone had about 97% battery capacity.
somehow overnight while sitting on the dresser doing nothing it dropped to 24% which is very unusual.

When I checked the battery usage screen it says the home & lock screen used 88%.
Anyone else experience this? My iPad Air was also updated yesterday and it is still sitting at 100% overnight

I tried restoring my phone to the last backup, hopefully to go back to 9.0 but to only option was to go back to the last 9.01 backup, the restore went back to 9.01. Is there a way to go back from 9.01 to 9.00?

Ok, so let me see if I understand this correctly. Some jerk’s ego at Apple wanted to “upgrade” iOS and seemingly doesn’t give a [email protected] about how it affects the user (my typical battery life the day before the upgrade was 3+/- days; the same day as I upgraded my 4s, battery life is a maximum 4-5 hours total, and that is with the phone just standing by without being used at all; when I say this, I specifically mean 99% battery to literally <1%).

So because of this, the ONLY fix is to change entirely the way I use my phone. In other words, I have to change rather Apple providing what the customer needs. This sounds a bit like the old days in Detroit, where GM's famous comment was "Give them any color they want, as long as it's black." Apple made its bones providing a simple, seamless computing experience for its users, especially compared to Windows; I'll bet Bill Gates goes to bed each night chuckling to himself and thanking his god for the stupidity of his competitors. Steve Jobs, RIP (if you can)…

Ah yes the infamous 3 year cycle where this is done deliberately to frustrate you into buying the newer phone. Basically every iphone is good for only 3 years. Not 3 years from the day you buy it but 3 years from the day it first went on sale :(

I found an iPhone battery eater problem. I have background app refresh off which should lengthen battery life as per many websites. I also looked in to my apps by Settings–>Battery and looking what apps were using the most battery life and Facebook by far is the highest. If you click the little clock symbol I saw Facebook as running in the background way more hours than using it, hmmm. So I went to
Settings–>Facebook and u see a background app refresh setting that’s greyed out and locked on if you already have background app refresh turned off in general settings. No wonder my battery is being eaten up. So what you need to do is go to Settings–>general–>background app refresh and turn in back on. Then go to Settings–>Facebook and turn background app refresh off. Then back to Settings–>general–>background app refresh and turn in back off. I figured this out by accident. This was not on any web tutorial like http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/09/24/how-to-fix-bad-ios-9-battery-life-2/

I went to a Genius Bar and got the solution, it is third party apps. This works on all iPhone and all updates (caution, do not avoid updates, they are crucial to security and keeping your data and device safe.

1. Take a screen grab of all your apps.

2. Back up all your data, but DO NOT back up the apps (if like me you already have backed up the apps, just create a new client and make a fresh backup.).

4.go to the App Store and manually down load your Apps (you can use your previously purchased list to expedite the process).

WHY?
Third Party Devs are often late with updates, when they do arrive, when updating the app they can leave dross from the previous build behind. This can cause apps to hog resources, especially memory. Often these problem apps remain open in memory even after a restart.

I agree that APPLE is using “3-year buy a new one” strategy. I used to have a cheap $25 Motorola Go phone for 9 years and never ever had a problem. I moved to Iphone 5s to catch up with the world, found myself spending hrs fixing the upload, learning things that I never used, looking totally stupid at Apple store to let the so called Genius reboot and reset my phone. I would like to have their jobs.

If we need to spent over $500 a phone every 3 years, I think I will go back to Gophone and carry a camera with me! Money is one thing, TIME is way too precious to be fooled around with.

This have been the worst update by far. The battery drainage is horrible. This is my 4th iPad in about 4, years. I’m glad I put insurance on them. This way I just switch it out when problems arise. This was the last time with an iPad. Time to upgrade to a Samsung tablet. This way it will match all my Samsung products. I will never again look at any Apple products.

i0S 9 has rendered my iPad 2 almost useless despite all the recommended tweaks the Apple forum recommends. Despite all those tweaks, it’s still outperformed by a cheapo supermarket tablet. Apple certainly know how to pi$$ off their customers by almost forcing them into upgrading. Trouble is, in this case it will be to an Andriod device!.

Now I have deinstalled nearly all apps that are drivers to use an iPhone and not an Android, just feeling stupid to carry around a really expensive cell for phone calls only and still bad battery. My old 5s is going back into service

Lets Face it. The new IOS is the problem. We can come up with all sorts of ways to turn everything off to save battery life but I am a light user and the only change I made was upgrading from IOS 8 to 9 or 9.1 My battery life dropped from 72 hrs to 8 then when I turn everything off I can get 12 hrs. It sucks big time. It’s about time Apple fess up and fix it or allow us to down grade. I started with an iphone 4 and now after all this time I am reluctantly ready to give on my iphone 6 and on up on Apple and move on.

0=2my best friend’s half-sister makes $87 /hr on the laptop . She has been out of a job for eight months but last month her check was $16467 just working on the laptop for a few hours.
find more info…. See More

It is so obvious that Apple iOS hobbles 2 year old phones. Coincidentally the same length of time that most people get hardware upgrades from their carriers. I foresee a lot of backlash and an apple revolt when people start to realize this. If it wasn’t deliberate they would allow us to downgrade to 8.4.1. The good old days when I got what I paid for.
Also it was Henry Ford that said you can get any colour you want as long as it’s black.

0=4my best friend’s half-sister makes $87 /hr on the laptop . She has been out of a job for eight months but last month her check was $16467 just working on the laptop for a few hours.
find more info…. See More

my Iphone 5s battery not charging .earlier i changed with a new batter but again same thing happen.Now I disconnect battery.check the leads with a meter ,middle and left showing 1.5v
middle and right with showing 2.5v.Tried charging outside with a USB charger directly which worked out to be successful.now showing 80% charged.Thank GOD working.

I’ve encountered severe battery drain on my iPhone 4s and iPad Air 2 running iOS 9.2.1 . I was suspecting the iOS update, but I noticed the location indicator showing up more than usual. In fact unusually more. After disabling numerous location services for various apps under the privacy settings -it was not until I changed location services on Yahoo! Weather from ‘Always’ to ‘While Using’ that my outrageous battery drainage stopped.

Same problem here with my iPad Air 2. Was working fine until a couple of weeks ago after I downloaded the 9.2.1 upgrade. My iPad mini is still on 9.2 and is working fine. My Air 2 takes right about 22 hours to fully charge after buying a new 12 amp charger. I thought there was a problem with the original 10 amp charger. It discharges while on standby and light usage in less than 10 hours. That’s not the best ratio.

Thinking of switching this stupid apple to another devices. Luckily i didn’t buy 6’s yet. Start from iphone 5, it’s so fragile on hardware n software. Thoughest still iphone 4 with ios 7. Even dropped hard for several times, phone still working good until this day. Been using it for almost 5 years.. My iphone 5s n 6, damn stupid gadget that i ever had.

iPhone 5s. Great little phone. iOS 9.2.1 unfortunately only allows me to get 6 hours usage with all features turned off, and in low power mode. Apple advertises “up to” 10 hours on their website. Where’s the other 40% of my phone, and does iOS 9.2.1’s terrible power drain constitute false advertising?

The iphone 6s battery life can die for many reasons not all which are laid out here. You might have some of the common reasons like a too many apps running, overcharging, or even a virus. These are more common fixes for the problem https://goo.gl/jbhBFG

Similar issues. Battery drain following last two IOS downgrades. I know it’s upgrades but I’ll stick with my terminology thanks, it’s more appropriate.

Last time I was messed about was by Sky satellite / cable. Kept putting prices up at an alarming rate. I kept telling them if they continued I’d cancel. They kept putting the prices up and I cancelled. I’ll never go back to them. Same thing is going to happen to Apple. These devices cost a lot of money and I don’t expect a marked detioration in such a short timespan, nor be expected to have to continue messing with settings to find improvements for a fault I didn’t have before downgrading. Bye Apple, hello Samsung Galaxy. I’ll never be back.

I have the same issue with a iPhone 5-64. The battery is not the problem, it’s panned obsolescence. If you don’t need a new device, Apple doesn’t make money. It’s sneaky, dirty, and effective for them and many other hardware companies. It’s why downgrading is STRONGLY discouraged. My phone worked beautifully before I fell for the iOS 9.x hype, and that’s what Apple banks on. It’s a consumer trap.

Wow, I’m going to android. I can’t believe how bad apple has become. You have to turn off and on your settings to save battery life after an update they send? In 2016? What a POS. My 6 went from slightly passable to dead by noon phone. What a joke apple. Android has had 4 updates to apple 10! I’m done. As soon as I can, goodbye Iphone…..

It is NOT 3rd party apps. I don’t have any running on my phone. I don’t think I have any! My phone is almost empty. My number 1 use is texting at 41% in the last 24 hours. My phone charged over night and it says the last time it has had a full charge was over 24 hours ago. The update is a complete wreck. Don’t let the geeks at the OS store feed you lines. I’ve been an apple fan boy for the last 10 years, ipad, apple tv and all phones. My wife and son just bought new G 7s. They are amazing. It’s like they are from another planet. I feel cheated that I have been sticking to this one legged lying company for so long. They don’t even care about us passing off screw ups as 3rd party problems and we eat it with a smile. What a joke! I’m so made at them and that I bought this for so long. No more I’m telling you.

So my phone worked fine before the upgrade, and now Apple wants to blame my apps and everything else and not take responsibility for their screwup?!? That is complete BS!!! How about you test out your app and make sure that you don’t have these problems before distributing it to your customers

Well if none of the described solution work, then it’s a faulty U2 IC which actually hold the charge. It can easily damage by using unofficial cables, car chargers or Power banks. U2 IC cost 80-100 $depends on country Thanks

Found a fix for me. I use my phone all day, let the battery drain down all the way until it turns off . Then charge it fully without using it. I then did a hard re set on it & so far I haven’t had any more battery problems . It’s been about 6 days since I calibrate the battery & that seem to fix the issue for me.

Litally all i do on my ipad is read from ibooks, and somehow my ipad is still dying in less than 8 hours! I have followed all the fixes shown, still my ipad dies quickly :( this is stupid, im going back to a nook and a tiny ipod to listen to music on, ipad isn;t worth all this trouble

Thanks to all for the above as I have had my iPhone 6 since it has come out and loved it cause it would last me all day browsing etc etc. but in the last couple of weeks since all the updates I lucky if it lasts till lunchtime especially if I make a phone call or use the internet to browse!!!!! Not happy as it means I cannot use my phone all day! Come on Apple what has happened to you!! your were amazing and now somethings a miss!!!!!

Since 9.3.2 phone shuts down as if the battery were dead. Plugging it in indicates around 60% battery left. Erasing the entire phone and restoring only critical data does nothing. The “Genius” bar acts surprised. After going thru this a couple of times, the problem got worse, with the phone chugging down around 90%. In the last 24 hours where I got only a few messages, that function has used 74% of the battery. Online diagnosis with Apple Chat indicated the batter is OK and I’m told it’s a “software problem”. I agree, it’s clearly there upgrade that has caused this, If that is’t it, then there is something corrupt about my iTunes backup, but I’m clothing at straws here,

Well glad I am not going mad!!!! Upgraded wifes 5S to 9.3.2 and the battery life is horrible, what gives APPLE!!!!!!!

Think you really need to get your act together or I feel you will seriously start to lose market share, lot of angry consumers out here about APPLE….love the phones beena user since 3GS days and in many ways wish I still had 3GS has been one of the toughest phones I have had..

Fix this power issue ASAP or we really have no choice but to be changing manafacturer of phone… I use a 6S at thius stage allis fine but I have refused to update to 9.3.2 software…..

Apple needs new programmers or senior staff with brains and respect.
The old screw the customer concept is getting old and if Apple continues to do it I will be switching to Android to by pass getting screwed even though Android is inferior they treat people with more respect.
Jobs knew this about customer support and spent his life keeping the others at Apple in line, but now there is no one to step up to the plate to do this and Apple is loosing credibility because of it.

I get up and do the same thing every morning with my iPad. After this update. I check email and read some news while drink coffe every am. 2 hours. Before iPad would go from 100 to 85 to 80 % now after this update the power level is 70%. This s iPad Air 2. I have had Bluetooth on since I bought this iPad. I turned Bluetooth off. This had little to no effect. Very confusing.

Almost tried all the possibilities, my battery is getting drain fast with factory reset.. and no additional apps are installed. Sometimes getting shutdown immediate even 20% battery, when i insert charger it shows 35% battery there…

I’ve had this problem multiple times in the life of my iPhone 6 after an IOS upgrade. The “Reset All Settings” command has been the only thing that fixed it every time. My theory is that for each major upgrade there may be settings added or a different set of recommended default settings that Apple validated with. Reset to the new OS default settings and then re-customize the ones you care about.

Doesn’t sound like anyone is finding any solutions. I can do a factory reset – and change NOTHING. Power phone off. Wait 20 minutes. Battery is down to 94%. If you do that math, that’s 6 hours of battery **when off**. My phone battery was lasting 2 days with “regular” usage until early-to-mid June when I upgraded to IOS 9.3.2. Now, it’s pretty much a brick.

The battery will drain if you have your wifi on period. Turn wifi off and your battery be as good or better than before.
I guess this is a bug with the new 9.3.5 upgrade and sure hope it is not apple working with providers to discourage wifi and get more $ out of us from data…so hope that is not true.

Not sure if any wifi fixes for this have been discussed but if anyone knows some setting please share.

None of the recommendations here worked. As all of you people find what caused your phonbe’s demise, others do not experience success by doing the things you all have done. Too many people are thinking 3rd party apps, get to know your battery usage, pokenmon. Please. Get real. Everyone is not the same with how they use their phone but one thing is for sure, if you all allow Apple or any other platform for smartphones, to track you, to push email, to monitor everything every time you use your browser, apps etc, then you’ve been burning more battery life than you realize and might just see even more increased life once you figure out that the inherent problem is iOS itself and how APPLE configures it to run. Yes, they want you to feel your phone is ready for the graveyard since nobody wants to put up another $600+ for a new phone and that is their goal. Smalrt phone sales, especially APPLE, have declined so much in the past few years and unless there is some big revival in sales, they will lose any incentive to mass produce them with huge profits in mind. The best way to promote a successful plan is to to take all older models, push an update, and hope most everyone takes it and then, suddenly, they see their phone is running so poorly that the first thing people at APPLE stores will tell them is it’s an old phone, you need a new one, it cannot handle the iOS anymore, it’s reached it’s EOL and served it’s purpose, it’s time to go, etc, etc, etc. Get real. It’s APPLE. NOTY 3rd art APPS causing the IMMEDIATE problem and 3rd party apps are also part of the problem because they all track and monitor all your actions and activities as this world is all about exploiting each and every one of us for the finanical gain of others. They get inside our heads, find out what makes us tick, then advertise us to death with items that suit that. SO wake up everyone. We are being manipulated and our minds are targets so the less we allow our phones to know about us, the better off we are. These phones need to be used carefully to protect your privacy so read up on how to take control of your phones before they take complete control of YOU!